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Came. Saw. Wrote.

Hello, friends! Before I get rolling on the bloggity blog post I would like to express my deep love for post-Easter candy sales. Never is there a better time to indulge in the awesomeness of some Cadburry caramel eggs (not creme, because those are disgusting). Partake and be merry!

Anyways, to the writey stuff!

So I’m trying this whole three-posts-a-week thingy and so far I’m rocking and rolling along. This will be post numero three–or maybe two? I’m not sure–and I feel like doing things this way will be 2 legit 2 quit. Yeah, that was an MC Hammer reference. Get into it.

The benefits of this blog schedule are the bomb biggety so far. See, I’ve been able to work on my book a smidge more which is totally bitchin’. Plus, now I don’t have the dial on my brain machine cranked all the way to BLOG so I can dedicate more time to planning out how my story is going to roll. I know, you’re totally jelly.

As for the book, I’m trucking like an eighteen-wheeler with some naked lady mudflaps. The plot has only seen a few hiccups so far but I’m thinking things are going to stay smooth from here on out. Seeing as I’ve already done plotted an arsenal of drama bombs, all I really need to do now is make one event roll into another. Take heed, Evil Manuscript! For I come to smite thee with mine tapping fingers!

There is one teensy weensy thing that has been itching in my head though. When I set out to do the damn thing I figured I should shoot for around 80,000 words as a final word count, but now I’m wondering if 70,000 isn’t just as good of a number. You already know I’ve never published a novel so I’m just going off what I’ve read in the wilds of the Internets, but who knows if any of that hokey pokey is any good? If anybody has a nugget of wisdom to drop I’d welcome it.

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9 thoughts on “Came. Saw. Wrote.”

My first (and only!) book grew from 50,000 to 67,000 over the course of its revisions- I think that shorter is just fine. By the time you finish the book, it will be at the length it’s supposed to be, whether you shoot for 80,000 and end up cutting it to 74,000 or shoot for 70,000 and end up adding until you get to 74,000. In my opinion, (I’m a pantser) I liked having the shorter copy because I could get the plot the way I wanted it, and then fill it out.

My goal for 50K during Nano netted me closer to 74K. I’m still editing the first draft, and discovering that there’s a great deal that should actually be back story. Hence the problem for me when I don’t plot out a story. NaNO was a total pantser experience for me!

NaNoWriMo is good and all, but in my experience I need to take more than a month to churn out something that’s even worth editing. When I wrote my first manuscript I did 120,000 in three months and it was pretty much garbage. This time I’m taking it slow–Hemingway kind of slow, you know?

To misquote Gene Siskel, a bad book is always too long, and a good book is always too short. Write the story, but yeah, keep in mind, “unacceptable” territory. I wrote a 45K Young Adult Contemporary and it was a tough sell. And my current W.I.P. is 140K, and yeah, YA Steampunk, gonna have to trim that baby, but the bloodletting will be gory fun.